Starting now, by virtue of this judicial juggling, journalists, intellectuals or Cuban citizens can be fined, their property seized, and be sent to jail for expressing themselves freely. All this under the cunningly made up charge of ``complicity'' with the American law known as Helms-Burton.

Also starting now and in view of the new law's unlimited reach, we the undersigned independent journalists will be forced to keep silent or face dire consequences.

But before that, although this might be the last gesture of free expression, we want to reclaim once more what is ours: The right to say what we think and to write about the Cuban reality. We want the world to know that those who conceived the law commit a serious crime: They have stripped the Cuban people of their choice to be informed and to think and express themselves freely.

Behind the unconstrained aggressiveness of the law's articles is a fear of truth. That fear reveals itself, on the one hand, by the feebleness of its arguments and, on the other, by the turbidity of its purposes, wrapped in political rhetoric.

Thus the injustice of the law: Now the government will have to carry the burden of this judicial miscarriage, which shows the Cuban government's true face. It also will have to carry the burden of our eventual forced silence, which will be an accusation against it.

Communication is a live component of human nature. With this note we make public our decision to continue our professional work, convinced as we are that to inform and to receive information is a right of human beings that supersedes any imposition by others.

In Havana, signed by:
Orlando Bordon Galvez
Odalys Curbelo Sanchez
Abel German Diaz Castro
Marvin Hernandez Monzon
Ivan Garcia Quintero
Ricardo Gonzalez Alfonso
Iran Gonzalez Gonzalez
Jesus Labrador Arias
Efren Martinez Pulgaron
Raul Rivero Castañeda
Ariel Tapia
Hector Trujillo Pis
©1999 Cuba Free Press